Click!
by queenlocksley
Summary: [Modern AU Outlaw Queen] Robin Hood is a photographer in New York City and one morning he discovers a photograph of a woman. But the photo was taken in the future (or at least it's time stamp is) and it appears it is Robin's photo, someday. Photo in hand he sets out to find the beautiful woman from his photograph. Finding her is only the beginning.
1. The Photograph

**Author's Note: **This was inspired by an anonymous prompt I received on Tumblr ( that-damned-bar-wench)

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><p>Robin Hood stood impatiently in line waiting to receive his prints, eager to see how his photographs had turned out. These photos were not just leisurely taken landscapes of New York City, if they were bold and audacious enough these photos would be plastered everywhere as advertising for New York. These photographs also came with a price tag if chosen for the job and Robin could really use the money. These days everyone considered themselves a photographer, snap the camera app on your phone, apply filter, blur imperfections and that's all there is to it. No…photography is so much more than that. For him photography was the refreshing change of perspective that ripped you from your comfort zone and reset everything inside you. The breath of life after a curse has been broken, an ice cold water in the middle of a drought. It was love, it was life.<p>

"Here you go, these are the prints for Hood," the man behind the counter set down the white envelope containing his pictures. The name, his name, Hood was scrawled in feminine lettering in red marker. Robin hugged the envelope to his chest and closed his eyes sending a silent prayer to God, Allah, whoever was up there steering fate. _Please, please, please, _He prayed, _give me something good for a change._

Robin paid for his prints and quickly exited the walgreens. He made his way down main street and wandered into Central Park, where he did his best thinking. The forest always brought out the best in him. Robin ripped the seal on the envelope and tediously, careful not to leave fingerprints on his photographs, splayed them out on the ground around him. They were extraordinary and he laughed with relief. The first photo showed the sunlight streaming through the leaves of two tall trees and the busy sidewalk of an average day here in the city was visible through the break between the trees.

Robin stared hard fast at the next photo in his stack, it was not his own photo. He was fixated on it for it was perhaps the most beautiful piece of artwork he had ever seen. It was of a woman, a beautiful goddess of a girl. She had olive toned skin and dark black hair that flipped up at the ends and was pulled back from her face by sunglasses perched on top of her head. A huge smile was broken out on her face and her eyes were scrunched up, wrinkling at the corners. She had no make up on and yet she was the most graceful and beautiful creature to walk the face of the planet.

Her hands were up next to her face and she animatedly staring into the camera lens, staring into a person's soul with those liquid brown eyes. She was clearly making a tada or over-dramatic happy kind of pose in the photograph; Robin wondered who she was posing for. The sunlight streaked down on her and only made her look more heavenly, a tantalizing treat. Robin's fingers skimmed the edges of the photograph as he tried to force the photo away and stay focused on his own master pieces, the photographs that could make him enough money to buy a meal, maybe enough money to take this lovely woman on a date. (If he were to ever have a chance encounter with her.)

Upon further inspection of the photo Robin saw something that did not sit right with him. The date stamp on the photo, it had not happened yet. This photo was taken two years in the future and Robin saw his familiar RH signature in the bottom left hand corner, almost translucent. The same signature on all these other photographs spread out around him like a jig saw puzzle.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar color of black hair in one of his other pictures, that had been taken in a day that had already passed. It was her…it was _her. _Robin's hands fell away from the close up of this wonderful woman and gripped this new photograph. It was just of the clearing in Central Park, plenty of people were featured in the photograph and to see her you had to look decently hard but she was there nonetheless.

Her profile was all that was visible in this new picture. She gripped an ice cream cone dipped in chocolate and rolled in nuts, and her mouth was parted, prepared to take a bite. The same sunglasses in the picture marked two years in the future, were perched on her head, as she bent forward ready to dig into her delightful dessert. Robin could see her left hand and he noticed the lack of a ring. Was she…impossible..this was all impossible. The photo wasn't his, whoever took that photo of the woman had clearly never set up the correct date on his camera and apparently his initials were RH too. Just one big coincidence, anything could happen in New York City. But was it?

What if this was fate's answers to his prayers? What if this was the something good for a change? What if she was the one? Well, Robin would be damned if he never at least tried to find out. He packed away his photographs and stood up, bumping into someone who 's face he never saw because if he had then this love story would have ended right there. True love is never easy like that. So Robin pushed on bye with a futile, "Hey!" from the beautiful woman he had just caused to bump her chocolate rolled in nuts ice cream cone into her shirt.

Regina sighed and immediately let her anger go with a breath. She did not bother to look behind her at the man who had bumped into her, which is also a good thing because she may not have accepted his date if she had seen him then. Regina pulled a napkin from her purse wiped off the ice cream that had fallen onto her blouse and smile. She plopped her sunglasses down from her head and onto her eyes and licked at her ice cream cone as she headed off about her day.

Just any other day in New York City


	2. The Girl

**Author's Note: **This chapter will be showing us what's going on in Regina's life in this world, I hope you guys enjoy it!

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><p><em>Vegabond is you…restless wanderer…giving more than you can take<em>

Regina's shoulders ached as she forged through the mass of people on the New York City sidewalk. She had slammed it against someone, who must have been all muscle, as she mad dashed out of Central Park. Her boss was going to have her ass on a silver platter. 7:15am, red digital numbers informed passer-bys on an electronic billboard. She was _late…_again. Although to any average person seven in the morning would be the beginning of the day, New Yorkers had been up for hours. This was truly the city that never sleeps; Regina loved. She was intoxicated by the thrill of it, the constant buzz of energy that was tangible in the air. She lived for it, and when it clouded her vision and clogged her systems, drove her absolutely _mad, _it still enticed her.

Central Park was her little slice of serenity in the big bad city, but even it could not be protected from the contagious hustle and bustle of the city. It was constantly moving. Slow was not a part of the Big Apple's vocabulary. Regina bounded onto 2nd Avenue, a street that was constantly at war with itself on whether it was a party street or a business street. The first three buildings were architectural masterpieces, pleasing to the eye despite their old age. They were apartment complexes, that while being far past their prime managed to survive charging a huh stipend to live there. A perfect example of how diversified New York City was could be found by examining those apartments residents.

The walk of shame was only beginning as Regina passed by the apartment complexes, she smirked, her eyes gazing over the associated "clientele", as she labeled them. Past the complexes was an abandoned law firm, which now served as a monument for street artists and street kids; it brought attention to "Madame Tink's Pyschic Shoppe", which occupied the shop space above the graffiti museum.

Regina resided in the first apartment complex on 2nd Ave, and like most all of the residents of 2nd Ave, had been to Madame Tink's at least once. (For Regina it was a good solid once.)

Regina had and never wanted to see that horrid woman again. She had what, politely put, could be referred to as a "troubled" past. Regina had grown up in Brooklyn, her parents had divorced when she was four. Cora, her mother, was very strict (politely put) and unreasonable. When she was a child, Regina had sometimes wished that she could divorce her mother the way her father had. (She still did on certain days even now, all grown up.)

Regina ran away from her mother when she was ten years old and convinced her mother to let her live with her father on the opposite side of Brooklyn. Life with her father were her premature golden years, the only part of her childhood worth remembering. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. At sixteen years old her father was shot and it became a murder when he died a couple of days later. That memory never failed to bring tears to Regina's eyes, it would always be a raw wound, one that would never quite heal no matter how much time passed.

After that Regina's life was mottled with varying shades of grade, as she lived the strict and tedious life with her mother. (Until her first love Daniel came along, that is.) Cora never approved of any of Regina's suitors, wanting her to marry a wealthy and successful business man; Regina wanted love not power or wealth. She engaged Daniel in secret, planning to marry him as soon as she was eighteen and legally responsible for herself…but that would never come to pass. Daniel died in a car accident a month before they were to be wed, it was deemed a total accident, the other party never blamed but it sat with her wrong. She still secretly blamed her mother for Daniel's death.

Cora got her wish, at least for a little bit, when Regina married Leopald. A wealthy business man who's first wife had died of some mysterious illness, leaving his young daughter, Snow, motherless. Regina hated Leopald, utterly despised him and her life with him. Forced to live in the guest house and be Snow's mother. The only reason Regina did not leave him earlier was her soft spot for children, especially young Snow. The day Snow turned eighteen, Regina demanded a divorce. It was not a question, she was leaving Leopald with or without the divorce papers signed, she would be free.

Twenty-three years old, having been a punching bag for a man older than her father would have been and emotionally abused for six years, the drugs, alcohol and graffiti that had gotten Regina through those years now behind her. (Leopald had signed the papers easy, with Snow no longer needing a mother he had no use for Regina.) When Snow moved out to start her life it felt as if Regina, too, was just starting hers.

That was how she had gotten back to these parts of the city, where she had lived with her father in days past, the only true home she had ever known. Regina lived off of a bar tender's salary, her dreams of being a model long gone away from her. But that was five. Regina was twenty-eight years old and still running late for work.

"You're late," Emmanuel, the manager of Down the Rabbit Hole (the bar where she worked) informed her

"I know, I'm so sorry," She checked in and shot him her most apologetic look, flashing him a nice bit of her cleavage as well. His eyes never moved from her breasts as he let her off the hook, grumbling about _next times _that would never come. _Thank God, _Regina exhaled with relief. She had no extra money and if she lost her job she knew what would happen. She would lose everything, she would not be able to pay the bills, buy food, and then the social worker would return and take her son from her. Henry, the light of her life, a toddling little boy nearly eight years old.

She had adopted Henry when she was still technically married to Leopald, he had made living her lonely life more bearable and given her the strength to leave that awful man she had called her husband once upon a time ago.

The adoption agency had threatened her before about repossessing Henry and giving him to a better family if she did not improve the current living situation.

"You look like you could use a drink," a man's voice reached her ears, pulling her from her thoughts. (What was that accent, British? Regina wondered.)

Regina laughed and pinned her hair back, not turning to face him. "Isn't that just the irony of our world? The bar tender who could use a drink?" She began mixing drinks, not thinking as she continued to keep her back to him. "Take a picture of the paradigm," she teased playfully.

"I would but alas it seems I left my camera at home. Photographers don't generally show up at bars to take pictures," The man informed her as he studied his newly printed pictures. "I'm off duty right now. Just wanted to drink and ponder something."

"And what is that?" She raised her eyebrows, which he could not see, as she polished an empty wine glass.

"I'm looking for a girl- woman- who was in one of my photographs. I think I have one of her pictures accidentally, and the gentleman that I am, would like to return it to her, maybe ask her to drinks," Regina laughed. "Either works."

"I hope you find her, your 'mystery girl'," Regina said honestly as she poured herself a shot of whiskey. The man had been right after all, she did need a drink. Robin rose to his feet and left a hefty tip on the counter for the bar tender.

"Yea, me, too," He said as he wove his way through the crowded bar to the exit. Regina straightened up, facing him now as he disappeared in the crowd, disappointed she had never seen his face. (Wanting to know if British guy with the hot voice had a hot face to match.) Her heart sank with a feeling of loss, which she did not know what to make of, so she distracted herself with another shot of whiskey. Get a grip, she warned herself.

Robin pocketed all of his photos but one. He studied the girl in the photo, the same one who he had just been talking too. If only he had known that. All it would have taken was one glimpse of her beautiful face and he would have known, but that did not happen. He put away that picture, too, and opened his umbrella as he walked outside in to the pouring rain and the familiar smell of the New York Streets hit him. Wet dog, from the rain, and hot garbage, from the streets.

_Where are you mystery girl? _Robin glanced over his shoulder through the fogged up bar windows he could just barely make out the form of the bar tender he had spoke with. Regina tucked a loose hair behind her ear and bustled around behind the bar. Deep in her gut, or more accurately, her heart, something was awakening. The one thing she never thought she would find had just walked through the door and she could still see it. Etched into her mind as perfectly as her favorite song. (Read All About It Prt III by Emeli Sandi was her favorite song.)

If only she knew his name, she would have at least known something, but Regina always tried to find meaning in things and maybe it was better this way.


	3. The Case

**Author's Note: **Okay keep reviewing guys! I love to know what you think! (Also once Regina and Robin "get together" the rating for this will go up, so be warned.)

...

The phone rang tediously as Robin drove towards the police station, his patience thinning with each added monotonous ring. The envelope, containing all the pictures stared at him from the passenger seat as he sped down the New York Streets. Never failing to be clogged, even on a rainy day like today.

"Hello?" David Nolan, Robin's comrade answered, a drowsy drag to his voice.

"Did I wake you, princess? Here, I thought you were supposed to be working," Robin teased as the stoplight flickered to a dull green glow.

David grumbled something and scuffled around on the other end. "Haha. I _was _working, I was investigating the back of my eyelids. "

Robin laughed (even though his pal was not all that funny), the poor brute tried. "Is Neal tiring you out that harshly?" David and his wife, Snow, had just had their first child. Robin remembered when Roland had been for how exhausted he had been. He would trade anything to have those days once more. David cleared his throat, pulling Robin out of his own thoughts.

"So..any particular reason you called me or…?"

Robin turned into the police station parking lot and nodded (even though David could not see him). "I have a case for you."

That caught his attention. David leaned forward, taking his feet from where they were resting a top his desk, and propped his elbows on the surface instead. "Do you now?"

Robin put his car in park and the pulled the keys from the ignition. He balanced the phone between his shoulder and ear as he grabbed the envelope containing the pictures and the surprise he had brought for David. He tucked the envelope under his jacket, protecting it from the rain, and started towards the station.

"Yes, I'm on my way in now," Robin announced, locking his car.

"Did you bring donuts?" David inquired, trying to shield his excitement and not get his hopes up.

"Better."

...

David was waiting eagerly at the corner that turned down to his office when Robin saw him, The second in command to the city's sheriff strode over.

"What exactly did you bring that is better than donuts?" He asked suspiciously as the pair entered his office. Robin plopped down on one of the two plush chairs in David's office, placing a six pack of beer on his desk as he did so. David's eyes lit up. He lowered the sash, to cover the window slit in his office door, and locked it. Peeping his head out into the hallway and catching the arm of Graham, a fellow work mate.

"Hey, Graham, tell the boys I'm working on a private case the rest of the night," David finished and shut the door. "Let me text my wife that I'm going to be late for dinner and then I'm all yours." David's eyes stayed glued to his phone screen, his fingers furiously typing away.

"How is Snow?" Robin asked making conversation. He had not seen her since before baby Neal was born.

"And send!" David smiled and pocketed his phone. He claimed a beer from the back and snagged the couch that occupied the space next to the plush chairs in his office (the old cop hang out lounge area), next to Robin. "Ah, she's good. Equally exhausted, if not more, obsessed with Neal. I'm not her favorite person anymore."

They both laughed.

"I never was Marian's favorite person after Roland was born," Robin smiles and it fades slowly as the memories return to him, he twirled the neck of his beer between his fingers. David nodded, staring at the ground as a heavy silence fell over them. The same silence that always accompanied the mentioning of Marian and more so…Roland.

"Marian, how- how is she?" David twisted off the cap and pressed his beer to his lips.

Robin shrugged. "Couldn't tell you." He sipped from his beer, it was obvious David wanted more but he would never press. "We don't really talk anymore, not after she moved. Besides, she's so happy, so very _very _happy now. She deserves to be, after…anyways, we don't keep up as well since she moved to Ohio. Her daughter turned two this past month…"

David nodded along, sensing Robin had no more to say (or that he wanted to say) he brought them back to the point. "So the case?" Robin smiled and produced the envelope of photographs.

...

"These are all amazing as usual, but I don't understa-" David's mouth dropped as he finished pilfering through the photographs and came across the photograph of _her. _Robin knew it was her, what else would make a grown **married** man's mouth drop like that? He turns the photograph to face Robin and demands, "Who's this?"

"That's her," Robin pointed to where the same girl rested atop a city bench reading in Central Park in one of his other photographs. "I don't know her, so don't get any ideas."

"It sure looks like you do!" David guffawed staring at the close up of the beautiful mystery girl and to the one where if you weren't looking for her she would blend in with the background.

"Check the time stamp on that one," Robin nodded at the one in David's hands. David's eyes skimmed the photo until he came across the time stamp; his eyebrows knit in confusion.

"Why…this date hasn't happened yet- I think your camera's messed up-"

"See, I thought that too, but all the other time stamps are correct and even if that was the problem, which it is not, it doesn't change the fact that I didn't take that picture! It just showed up with all my other prints."

"So..what do you want-"

"I want to find her."

David sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head with a laugh. "I was afraid that was what you would say."

...

"Okay, so what do we know about this woman?" David asked several beers later, two storyboards with pictures clipped and arrows connecting words scribbled hastily on them behind him.

"She's hot!" Robin rose his beer to his own words, nodding enthusiastically in emphasis.

"Aside from the obvious," David scowled.

"Apologies, Sargent Sass." Robin pursed his lips in thought. "Um…she reads in Central Park?"

"Yes! BOOM!" David clapped his hands and tapped the end of the dry erase marker against the storyboard where an arrow connected the words 'Central Park' to the picture of her reading in Central Park. "What else?"

Robin bit at his lip, "Do we know anything else?"

"Yesss we know so much else!" David moaned as if Robin's lack of detective skills was causing him physical pain.

"You're the cop, bro, not me," Robin chuckled as he chugged from his beer.

David rolled his eyes and walked over to his second storyboard, turning it around so that photocopied zoomed in versions of the pictures were visible. "I took the liberty to scan all you photos and uploaded them to my computer while we were talking. I played around with the zoom..and other features, and look here," David pointed to a part of the picture where she was reading in Central Park that had been circled in red.

"Look at her posture!" David whined begging Robin to know whatever it was he was seeing. "See how she is hunched over, her nose is nearly in that book. Most people bring the book to them but she, _she _is bringing herself to the book! Do you know why?" Robin stared at him and he shook his head again. "Of course you don't, I'm the cop, you're the photographer. She's bringing herself to the book is a sign of someone wanting to absorb themselves completely into something and people do that when they are scarred, where they have lived lives which brought more pain than pleasure."

"Well now I just want to cry for Magnesium," Robin said with pouted lips.

"What?" David looked repulsed, like he had completely lost his audience.

"I call her 'mystery girl' in my head and that's mg and Mg is magnesium on the periodic table- I like science, continue," Robin blabbed.

"We should cry for Magnesium her poor posture will cause her pain when she's old, anyways I also was able to zoom in on the book she's reading and get it's title." David pointed to another picture. "The Scarlet Letter."

"So…she's an adultress?" Robin guessed unsure what any of this had to do with finding her.

"NOOOOOOOoooooooo!" David groaned in anguish. "She was abused sexually, she's reading a book where a woman is shamed for her sexuality and that plus her posture leads to the conclusion that she is a very bruised woman, metaphysically."

"Okay…"

"Where do bruised people hang out?"

"Central Park-"

"Bars."


	4. The Nightmare

**Author's Note: **Okay so Regina and Robin actually have a lot of people that connect them yet they still never meet. I just wanted them to be very connected because their inner circles in the show are very connected (now that Robin is in Storybrooke) etc. Also I am trying to make the chapters longer than just 2000 words, but it's had. I can update quicker when the chapters are short and sweet. Now to the story!

...

Regina was exhausted. Her feet ached and she longed for a nice massage (one she would not be receiving any time soon, not like she had any spare cash or loving suitors to wait on her hand and feet). She had finished her third shift and more than deserved the day off she would receive the next day. Besides, Regina reminded her self as she perked up. Henry's waiting for you at home. Yea, that was more than enough to propel her to trudge forward in her six inch heels a little faster. (How she hated her bar tending uniform all the more on the walk home.) She tugged at the edges of her pea coat, trying to conceal her rather slutty uniform, that made her feel like a hooker but kept her employed at The Rabbit Hole.

Regina rummaged through her purse, an average Target brand mustard yellow purse that had seen better years and was mottled with mysterious stains. All from her wonderful boy when he was younger, she laughed as her fingers ran over the white crack on her purse where the mustard yellow pleather was peeling and she laughed at the memory. Henry had dragged her purse along the sidewalk, pretending it was his cat (since Regina's apartment did not allow pets his only furry friends were imaginary). At the time she had been anything but smiling, but at the time the purse had been younger (and therefore newer) and nothing like that is ever funny when it happens.

Her fingers meet the smooth surface of her phone and she quickly yanks it free from the bottomless abyss that is her purse. She dials Emma's number and strolls at a more leisurely pace down the sidewalk as she waits for an answer.

"Hey! Regina! What's up?!" Always energetic that one, Regina held the phone an inch or so from her ear and could still hear Miss Swan perfectly on the other end. In the background she heard explosions from one of Henry's video games, followed by a victorious _Yesss! _She could picture Henry perched on the edge of the couch, throwing his small fist into the air as he successfully destroyed whatever needed destroying.

"I'm so exhausted," Regina exhaled heavily and stifled a yawn, as if her body had felt the need to provide evidence that she was indeed, exhausted after a twelve hour work day. It was ridiculous that a bar tender have to wake up and work at a bar at seven in the morning. (It was not as if people were still hanging around from he previous night, and no one new was stumbling in.) But the bar served as a coffee lounge with free wi-fi during the day, when society would consider it unacceptable to be drinking (not that some people don't) and had a decent selection of breakfast bagels, so they needed a morning shift of workers too.

"I never would have guessed, really?" She was in no mood for Emma's sarcastic sense of humor tonight.

"Miss Swan," Regina warned, her patience wearing. "Did you make dinner?"

Emma paused, bit at her lips and carefully selected her words. "Sort of…it may or may not be edible."

Regina grumbled under her breath, she had really wanted dinner to be taken care of when she stumbled through her front door so that she could collapse to the couch and not have to get up until it was Henry's bed time. "Has Henry eaten anything?"

"No."

"Can you order some Chinese- delivery," Regina ordered and then softened to add a, "please."

"From Chinatown or-"

"No, they won't deliver fast enough," Regina shook her head and scratched at the back of her neck, tugging at her neck hairs. She did not want to say New China, they did not put egg in their fried rice, a crime in Regina's book, but they were the quickest. "I guess…that New China place." Emma hung up a few moments later with an **okay** and **yes, I'll make an egg for the fried rice** later.

...

Regina staggered down her hallway, looking dreary as ever, and praised Jesus when her door came into sight. The familiar white color with the brass numbers 508 staring her in the face. She messed around with her key chain, trying to separate her car key from her key to the Rabbit Hole from her apartment key from the miscellaneous key chains, when the door flew open. Regina startled in surprise.

"Mom!" Henry's eyes lit up as he saw her standing outside their doorway. He dove forward, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her abdomen. Just like that the exhaustion dissolves, her sour mood from working all day is gone because just seeing her son makes it all worth it.

"Hello, Henry," Regina smiled and held her son to her, planting gentle kisses on his hair.

"Look at what I made! You've got to see this! It's epic!" Henry squealed energetically, tugging Regina into the apartment. She kicked her heel against the door so it shut behind her, and followed after her son into the living room. Emma lounged on the ground eating from a takeout box (how many times had she told that woman) when they walked in. The couch cushions were overturned, blankets draped from chairs and couches and dressers. Her whole living room was one massive fort, and despite how the mess made her gut wrench she put on a smile and praised her son for his handiwork.

"Hey, I thought this was a Mom-free zone?" Emma asked with a mouthful of teriyaki chicken.

Regina raised her brows at her son, who turned bright red, and giggled. "I changed my mind," he promised her.

Emma tousled Henry's hair and crawled out of the fort to where she could stand in the entryway. "Well, I have to go now, kid, the two men I left in charge can only be left alone in small doses." Emma threw away her empty takeout container and put her fork in the sink. She slid into her red pea coat and pulled on some leather gloves. "Otherwise the police station might burn down."

Henry laughed and waved goodbye to her. "Sheriff swan off to work," Regina announced tickling her son.

"Somebody's got to keep all these crazy tourists and city-goers in line." Emma headed out the door.

"Bye, Emma!" Henry called to her.

"Bye, kid," The door shut behind her.

"How was your day, Mom?" Henry piped up after the fort had turned back into a living roo, and the pair were curled up on the couch, some animated feature playing on the T.V as Regina player with Henry's hair.

She pursed her lips, always filtering what she would tell him about her day. (Being a bartender it was not for lack of things to say but few of the many interesting stories were age appropriate for her eight year old.) Regina smiled, what a polite boy she had raised.

"It was good. It rained this morning so slow business was made even slower because of that, but there was this man who came in and do you know what?"

"What?" Henry asked eagerly, on the edge of his seat.

"He had a real life mystery," Henry gasped, his eyes growing wide. Regina nodded. Her son loved mysteries, always finding them in everyday things and trying to solve them. Operation Christmas, the recurring mystery of what Santa might be bringing him.

"What was his mystery?" Henry inquired gazing up at her.

"He had this picture of a girl but it was not his. He wanted to find her so he could give it back to her. He's looking for her in this HUGE-" Regina ticked her son's belly. "-city."

"Do you think he'll find her?" Henry wondered and with his head tilted to the side, big brow eyes eager to hear more, looking up at her he reminded her of a puppy.

"I hope so, wouldn't that be an interesting tale to tell?" Henry nodded at his mother's words. She patted his legs and kissed his forehead. "Now, off to bed with you."

Henry pouted at her but she was persistent as she stood pointing at his room, playfully smacking his bottom.

"Can I read some of my Hardy Boys book?" He questioned and he knew he had her. Regina never said no to reading. If a child wanted to read it should be encouraged, not diminished, was her reasoning.

"Lights better be out in ten minutes!" Regina warned playfully.

"They will! Thank you!" Henry scurried off into his room.

Regina poked her head in Henry's room five minutes later (after she had fed herself a helping of fried rice); he was out cold. She turned off the lights and tucked his Hardy Boys' book back on his bookshelf. He owned every Hardy Boys book in the series.

_Diiiinnngg! _Her phone beeped loudly, Henry rustled, rolling over in his bed but remained asleep. Regina exhaled and left as quickly (and quietly) as possible. She had a new text message from Emma.

_You'll never guess what the two idiots were doing! _

Regina scowled. Henry had almost been woken for this? Of course she knew it was not Miss Swan's fault (if anyone's it was hers) but still. Yet, Emma was her friend (who also served as Henry's nanny) and she was genuinely interested in what the "two idiots" were doing.

Emma had started nannying for Henry when Regina moved out of Leopald's. Henry was a toddler, and Regina had to work around the clock to make ends meet. Emma had needed a little extra cash and she became quick friends with Regina. Now, Emma was sheriff of New York City and did not need the extra cash but she liked spending time with Henry so she still watched him for her friend whenever she could.

_Regina: What?_

She sent back moments later to Emma's text. She turned off all the lights, double checked that the door was dead bolted and latched, before hiding herself away in her bedroom. She curled up under the covers and put on the Walking Dead. (Her guilty pleasure, which she never could watch when Henry was up. The last thing she needed was to scar him with nightmares of zombies. Well, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones were her guilty pleases.)

_Emma: David and one of his buddies were lounged out drinking beer and making some storyboard for some girl David's said buddy is trying to find and Graham was in his office with some bimbo! I swear! Men! _

That sounded awful, for Emma, at least. Graham was her ex-boyfriend (they had become rivals when the position for sheriff opened up and enemies when Emma was the one promoted.) David was Emma's substitute father and she was just annoyed with him for drinking on the job.

_Regina: I've talked with whoever that buddy is. _

_Regina: Came into the Rabbit Hole talking about finding this girl he had a picture of._

_Regina: I hope he's not crazy_

_Emma: LOL! _

_Emma: I know the guy, totally normal_

_Emma: …well… as normal as anyone else who is friend's with David_

_Emma: They flipped when I tried to enter the office, hid the storyboard like children! _

A knock at the door interrupted Regina from her conversation with Emma. She jumped. Henry stood sleepy-eyed in her doorway. She fumbled with the remote and paused the show (then deciding there was no good screen to pause an episode of the Walking Dead on and turned it off all together.)

"Mommy?"

Regina reached out over her bed, her fingers grasping at Henry's arms, stroking soothingly as she guided him (in the dark) towards her.

"Yes, baby?"

Henry sniffled. Regina could see something clearly had him very upset.

"Henry did you have a nightmare?" Regina asked as she pulled her son onto the bed with her, and he cradled himself against her side. She held him tight to her, placing kisses along the side of his face.

"I don't want you to send me back to the 'doption place!" Henry wailed, burying his face in her lap.

Regina's eyes grew in horror.

"What?! Henry-!"

"Mikey, from class today, said that I better be careful or else you might change your mind about wanting me as your son! He said you might send me back if I was bad because you're not stuck with me! And- and then I was thinking about how you really don't like messes and I made a big huge mess with my fort today in the living room! And- and I don't want you to send- send me back!" He sobbed.

Regina wrapped her arms so tight around her son, pulling him into her lap and hugging him to her chest like she used to do when he was mere babe. "Henry," Regina cooed, her heart breaking for her son. "Oh, my sweet, Henry." She stroked his back and bit down on her lips to hold in her tears.

"Henry look at me! Look. At. Me." She raised his chin and his big brown eyes tentatively raised to meet hers. "I _am_ your Mom. You _are _my son. You might not have come from my womb but you came from my heart, and where do you think it counts? I will never ever a million times ever send you back. No matter how many messes you make or how angry or upset I may seem, do you understand me? You are _stuck _with me, and for that I am so thankful. I love you, Henry, okay? Don't you ever forget that because in the end when everything else is gone and lost and broken, love remains strong." Regina consoled her son, making a mental note to call Mikey's mother.

Henry wiped at his eyes, straightening up in her arms. "You promise?"

Regina nodded, a smile breaking her lips and the first tear rolling down her cheeks. "Yes. Yes, I promise."

"Can I- can I sleep in your bed with you?" His request was muffled as he clung to her, his hands anchored onto the fabric of her shirt.

"Yes, of course, yes!" Regina tucked him under her blankets and kept an arm wrapped around him. Her phone continuing to ding beside her. "I love you, Henry."

"I love you, too!" Henry yawned, rolling over and back to sleep. Regina retrieved her phone from the bedside table. 5 new texts.

_Emma: Why are guys so anal about random shit like that?_

_Emma: I swear if that bimbo in Graham's office is blonde..._

_Emma: Sorry I'm ranting_

_Emma: Hey don't be asleep! I have the night shift! Talk to me! _

_Emma: Alll by myseeeelllllfffff_

Regina rolled her eyes.

_Regina: Sorry, Henry woke up. Bad thoughts. _

_Emma: Is he okay? _

Regina explained the situation to her.

_Emma: What did you tell him about his other mother?_

Regina grit her teeth at that. The other woman was _not _his other mother, she was the woman who gave him up. A feral possessive instinct overcame her as she glanced at her son, and brought him closer to her.

_Regina: You mean the woman that gave him up? _

_Regina: Not much. I just told him sometimes Mommy's change their minds about wanting babies so they give them to people who do want the babies. _

_Emma: I'm just saying I don't think it's right to villainize the birth mother._

Regina hisses at this. Who is Emma to tell her how to parent?

_Regina: Here I thought-_

She shakes her head and deletes her typing, she turns off her phone and cuddles up with her son to sleep.

* * *

><p>Regina had just finished making breakfast the next morning when there was a knock at the door. She wiped her hands on a dish towel and unlocked the door.<p>

Emma.

"Look who the cat dragged in," Regina announced not attempting in the slightest to hide her anger. She blocked Emma from entering and glared at the blond. "What do I owe the pleasure? Come to tell me more about how Henry's birth mother is some hero? Or how I should parent my child? How many children do you have Miss Swan-"

"Regina," Emma whined following in after her when Regina finally moved from the doorway. [Regina was not going to allow her eggs to burn, not even in the name of stubbornness.]

"It's not what I meant- and it's not my place to tell you how to parent, but I feel like if you make the birth mother a villain he'll feel guilty for wanting to know her and every kid does eventually Regina. Or want to meet her or know anything about her-"

"Closed adoption."

Emma was caught off guard. "What?"

"It was a _closed adoption. _The records are sealed, but apparently she was in a correction facility. There are no records that reveal who the birth mother is, no medical history nothing. It's all closed. Hence, closed adoption." Regina flipped the eggs off the pan and on to the plate with the other breakfast items, discarding the pan into the sink.

"But what if the woman who gave him up regretted it? What if she had had no choice and wanted to see him, meet him, know his name?" Emma defended, Regina fumed.

"Why do you care so much about this fictional birth mother, Miss Swan?" Regina hissed. "He's my son! Mine! Are you the one giving him nightmares about being taken away from me or me giving him back? Putting these ideas that he's not actually my son in his head?"

"NO! Never!"

"Get out!"

"What- Regina!"

Regina clenched and unclenched her fists. "I said 'get out'!"

"The birth mother is not fictional, Regina," Emma said as she stormed out, mumbling under her breath. "She's very real and wants her son back."

Regina slammed the door shut behind Emma, pressing her hands against it, shaking with anger. Regina _was _Henry's mother. Why was everyone so insistent on claiming she wasn't? He was _her _son!

"Mom."

The last voice she wanted to hear said. Regina exhaled and opened her eyes.

"How much did you hear?"

"I didn't mean to upset you last night when I-" Henry began but she stopped him.

"You didn't do anything. I just need to cool off. Emma won't be nannying you anymore, I don't want her to make you feel like you don't belong here, okay?"

Henry nodded. "Mom?"

"Mhmm?"

"I do wonder sometimes, a lot of times actually. When kids get picked up by their Moms and look identical, on my birthday, on adoption day, on father's day.." He trailed off. "But Emma was wrong. You don't make me feel guilty or make me think badly about my birth mother. She gave me up so that I could have my best chance, it doesn't matter how, why, or when. Because either way she wasn't ready to be a mom. Lucky for me I found my way to you, my real Mom. I know that now. It's like the Hardy Boys say, people have a tendency to find the people they are meant to be with. No matter when, where, or how I believe I will always find you."

"So if you think about it the truth is I always have been your son and you always my mom. Because, like you say," Henry walked over and placed a hand on Regina's heart. "We come from each other's hearts."

Regina smiled and wiped at her eyes, hugging her son. "Do you know how smart and wonderful you are?" Henry beamed. Regina straightened up and booked her son's nose. "Now, how about we do something fun today? It's my day off!"

"Can we walk the City and get hot dogs from those carts and dance in Time Square and-" he gasped for breath. Henry loved to explore the city, run through it, connect with it, truly feel it in his bones.

"Whatever you want," Regina assured him.


End file.
